Some in Israel question its influence over US as Iran war decision nears

As the prospect of a conflict between the US and Iran looms, analysts within Israel have questioned the country’s capacity to determine the outcome of a confrontation in a region that, just months ago, it had regarded itself as on the brink of dominating.

“The [Israeli] opposition are accusing Netanyahu of giving in to Trump and ending the war on Gaza too soon,” said Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg.

“[Israel is] being hounded out of Lebanon, [its] freedom to operate within Syria has been halted. All that’s left to [Israel] is the freedom to kill Palestinians, and with Qatar, Turkiye and Egypt now being involved in Gaza, over Israel’s objection, it won’t be allowed to do that for much longer.”

While senior Israeli figures including Netanyahu are liaising directly with the Trump administration over a possible attack on Iran, analysts say it is increasingly clear that Israel’s ability to shape regional developments is diminished.

After two years of genocide in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 71,800 Palestinians, the US now appears to have taken the lead and has overruled Israel when it objected to the admission of Turkiye and Qatar to the board that will oversee the administration of Gaza.

In Syria, Israeli ambitions to hobble the new government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa also appear to have fallen foul of Trump’s White House, which is actively pushing the Netanyahu government to reach an accommodation with Damascus. In Lebanon, too, the US continues to play a defining role in determining Israeli actions, with any possible confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel said to be dependent upon Washington’s green light.


How much worse would it be now with another Biden term of unconditional support... Ironically Trump is actually holding Netanyahu back with his greed for oil money.

‘Big Bad Wolf’

While analysts’ expectations that Netanyahu could influence Trump’s actions in Iran may be limited, their sense that a fresh war would buy the Israeli prime minister relief from his current difficulties seems universal.

“Iran is Israel’s ‘Big Bad Wolf’,” Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg said of the geopolitical opponent that many in Israel believe exists only to ensure Israel’s destruction.

Mekelberg added that a war with Iran would serve as a useful distraction from Netanyahu’s domestic troubles, such as an inquiry into government failures related to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, his attempt to weaken the oversight powers of the judiciary, and his ongoing corruption trials.

“There’s a saying in Hebrew: ‘the righteous have their work done by others.’ I’m not for a moment saying that Netanyahu is righteous, but I’m sure he’s keen on having his work done by others,” Mekelberg said.

How much public appetite there may be for a confrontation with Iran is unclear.

Israel was able to heavily damage Iran during the conflict it started in June last year. But Iran was also able to repeatedly pierce Israel’s defences, making it clear that the Israeli public is not safe from the wars its state pursues in the region.

The threat – rather than the reality – of a confrontation with Iran also serves the prime minister’s ends, Goldberg noted. “Netanyahu has no need for a war. He doesn’t really need to do anything other than survive, which he’s proven adept at,” the analyst said, referring to the absence of any credible political rival, as well as the risk that an actual war may highlight Israel’s diplomatic weakness in its dealings with the US.

“There’s this joke phrase that became popular with those resisting Netanyahu’s judicial reform: ‘This time he’s done’,” Goldberg said. “Netanyahu’s never done. He committed a genocide, and all people in Israel can object to is the management of it. He’s currently losing military and diplomatic influence across the region, and few are noticing. I can’t imagine that this will be ‘it’ either.”

US Muslim advocates demand Trump ‘immediately restrain Israel’

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) has said Israel’s deadly attacks on Gaza and restrictions at the Rafah crossing “should trigger accountability and the withholding of military aid” by the US government.

“Instead of doing that, the United States approved yet another ($6.7bn) weapons deal for Israel just last week, once again making clear how little Palestinian life is valued by this administration,” the group said in a statement.

It urged Trump to enforce “a real ceasefire” in the bombarded Palestinian enclave; lift Israel’s continued blockade of Gaza and withhold US military aid to its top ally.

“Anything less is continued US complicity and a deliberate choice to enable ongoing atrocities.”

Palestine Red Crescent Society condemns Israeli killing of medic in Gaza as war crime

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says killed Gaza emergency responder Hussein Hasan Hussein al-Sumairy was “deliberately targeted” by the Israeli military today.

In a statement, PRCS denounced al-Sumairy’s killing as a war crime under international law.

“This crime is part of [Israel’s] systematic policy of continuing to undermine the health and emergency [response] system in the Gaza Strip” since the Israeli bombardment began in October 2023, the agency said.

It called on the international community to take action to protect Palestinian healthcare workers and emergency responders, stressing that inaction gives Israel a greenlight to “continue violating international law and targeting humanitarian personnel”.

📍Gaza | We share our heartfelt condolences to the family, colleagues & friends of Hussein Hasan Hussein Al-Sumairy, who was killed today while providing emergency medical service in Khan Yunis.

Medical personnel & humanitarian workers must be able to carry out their work… pic.twitter.com/0dWHW2Gm6L

— ICRC (@ICRC) February 4, 2026

Satellite images show Israeli forces bulldozed cemetery in Gaza City: Report

Israeli forces have bulldozed part of a cemetery in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, satellite imagery has revealed, churning up soil in an area whose size suggests the use of heavy equipment.

British newspaper The Guardian revealed the systematic destruction of the cemetery, which it said contained the remains of dozens of British and Australian and other allied soldiers killed in the first and second world wars.

Israeli forces are known to have damaged or destroyed graves across the Gaza Strip, according to multiple reports from the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs. Last month, the al-Batsh cemetery in Gaza City was excavated as the army recovered the last captive’s body.

Rights group files US complaint against Israeli soldier

The Hind Rajab Foundation says it has filed a complaint in the US against an Israeli soldier named Adi Karni, “seeking [a] criminal investigation for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts amounting to genocide committed during Israel’s war in Gaza”.

The group said it has filed complaints against Karni in other places, including Peru.

“Karni is currently present in the United States and is scheduled to speak publicly at Boston University this evening, a fact that directly engages US jurisdiction and heightens the urgency of the filing,” it said.

The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed criminal complaints in countries around the world against members of the Israeli military, whom it accuses of being involved in war crimes in Gaza.

🚨🇺🇸 The #HindRajabFoundation has filed a complaint in the U.S. against Israeli soldier Adi Karni, already under investigation in Peru, for war crimes and genocide in Gaza.
Karni is currently in the U.S. after being invited to speak this evening at Boston University.
More ⬇️… pic.twitter.com/P8eJjlm8hp

— The Hind Rajab Foundation (@HindRFoundation) February 4, 2026

Israel’s Rafah restrictions ‘a slow-motion massacre’

Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, says an agreement that has been violated more than 1,400 times “is no ceasefire at all”.

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel has violated the “truce” with Hamas at least 1,520 times from October 10 until today.

“At most, [the deal] can be just described as some sort of mild diplomatic restraint,” Shehada told Al Jazeera. “Whenever the world’s attention is elsewhere, Israel escalates dramatically.”

He also described Israel’s continued restrictions on freedom of movement at the Rafah border crossing as “cynical cruelty” after Palestinians across Gaza had been looking forward to the crossing’s reopening this week.

“It was a major emotional moment for me, my family, my loved-ones – inside or outside Gaza. But Israel hollowed [it] out of any substance or meaning,” Shehada said, denouncing Israel for blocking most ill and wounded people from getting treatment abroad.

“It’s basically a slow-motion massacre,” he said.

‘What ceasefire?’ Former PLO official says amid deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza

Hanan Ashrawi, a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, has denounced Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza and restrictions at the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

In a post on X, Ashrawi noted that more than 550 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the US-brokered “ceasefire” came into effect in October.

“The Rafah crossing continues to be a cruel & severely restricted “passage” of pain & humiliation, subjecting the handful of returning Gazans to prolonged interrogation, endless delays (sometimes lasting days), & confiscation of their luggage,” she said.

“Those who enter are clearly severely traumatised. Those who need to leave to receive urgent medical care are delayed or refused exit, again restricting their numbers to scores.

“This continues to be a multifaceted war of aggression, based on the deliberate manipulation of the pain of a captive people.”

What “ceasefire”? The Israeli occupation forces continues to shell & bomb Gaza killing 20 Palestinians, mainly women & children, & wounding scores of others within the past 12 hours, at the pretext that one Israeli soldier was wounded. Since the beginning of the “ceasefire” more…

— Hanan Ashrawi (@DrHananAshrawi) February 4, 2026

Here’s why Israel is allowing record murder rates in its Palestinian towns

Israel is tolerating violence against its Palestinian citizens to push them out, while weaponising anti-Semitism to pull Jews in.


_{Palestinian citizens of Israel protest, calling on the Israeli government to tackle a wave of crime and killings within their communities through effective law and order, in Sakhnin, northern Israel, January 22, 2026}

While the international media has rightly focused on the genocide and enormous displacement in Gaza alongside the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, the 300 murders inside Israel in 2025, 252 of whom were Palestinian victims, garnered little to no media coverage outside Israel. Yet last year marked the deadliest year on record for murders among Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 21 percent of Israel’s population but sustain 80 percent of the murders. That is one murder every 36 hours.

The international media have also covered the rise in anti-Semitism across the world, even as there has been little to no media coverage of how Israel has been exaggerating and instrumentalising a Zionist notion of anti-Semitism to create moral panic among Jews everywhere. Indeed, when I speak to Jewish friends in Israel, they often ask how I, who live in London, cope with anti-Semitism. As consumers of Israeli news, they can be forgiven for thinking that Jews across the world are in imminent danger.

These two phenomena – the crime epidemic within Palestinian communities inside Israel and the weaponisation of anti-Semitism to amplify Jewish fear – might seem totally unconnected. Yet there is a clear thread linking them, and it is called demographic engineering.


Crime as an impetus to leave

Itamar Ben-Gvir is surely not the first minister of national security to have allowed criminal gangs to terrorise Palestinian communities. But on Ben Gvir’s watch, the murders have reached record levels. And 2026 seems to be following the trend, with 31 more Palestinians murdered during the first month.

On the one hand, Israel has used the soaring crime to portray Palestinian citizens as uncivilised and barbaric, extending the dehumanisation from stateless Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to its own citizens. On the other hand, it has enabled criminals to terrorise Palestinian towns.

Indeed, the police have solved only 15 percent of the murders within the Palestinian community while doing little, if anything, to stop criminals from collecting “protection fees” from businesses – fees that extract an estimated two billion shekels ($650m) a year from the community.

On January 22, Palestinians launched the largest demonstration since 2019, waving black flags while chanting slogans accusing the police of total abandonment. The following day, the organisers called a general strike, with one of the organisers, Mohammed Shlaata, making it clear that responsibility for the violence lies with the authorities: “We are in a state of emergency,” he said. “We have a clear finger of accusation – we blame the police.”

Talking to Palestinian friends, some tell me they fear for their children’s lives and want them to leave the country, while others have packed their bags and left. Admittedly, the number of those leaving is low, but Palestinian citizens are reaching a boiling point.

Anti-Semitism and negative migration

At the same time that the government does nothing to quell criminal activity and lawlessness within Palestinian communities in Israel, it exaggerates and instrumentalises a Zionist notion of anti-Semitism to continuously reassert Jewish victimhood.

Since 2023, more Jews have been leaving the country than entering. In 2024, the number of citizens leaving Israel was 26,000 higher than the number of immigrants entering it; in 2025, the gap was about 37,000 Israelis. In other words, negative migration has jumped by more than 42 percent, and Israeli officials are worried that this trend is taking root and even accelerating.

Accordingly, both the Israeli public and the Jewish diaspora are told again and again that anti-Semitism across the globe has gone rampant. Jews are told that the horrific Bondi massacre in Australia is an indication of a new global trend, that in the United Kingdom anti-Semitism has been normalised, and that in Europe Jews are afraid to wear kippahs.

Anti-Semitism has undoubtedly soared over the past two years, and there is obviously a kernel of truth in these articles. But in contrast to the very real panic among Palestinian citizens, which the state has ignored, in the case of anti-Semitism, the state dramatically exaggerates and instrumentalises the evidence to produce a moral panic. The message is clear: Jews across the world should fear for their lives, and therefore those who live in Israel should be wary of leaving, while the only way diasporic Jews can be safe is by migrating to Israel.

Supremacy as glue

The glue holding all of the demographic strategies Israel deploys together is the belief in Jewish exceptionalism and supremacy. The genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank are justified through the dehumanisation of Palestinians; the neglect of the murders and crime in Palestinian communities within Israel is informed by racial discrimination that has been ongoing since 1948; and Israel is weaponising racism against Jews to curb negative migration. The ultimate objective is to guarantee the racial-religious character of Israel as exclusively Jewish, while the dream is a pure Jewish state.

Israel kills two in northern Gaza as Rafah crossing sees little movement

Israeli forces carry out multiple attacks across the enclave despite a near four-month ‘ceasefire’, as Palestinians continue to trickle across the Rafah border in either direction.


_{Displaced Palestinians inspect the damage after Israeli aircraft attacked a five-storey house overnight in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on February 6}

Two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip, emergency services said, with multiple attacks reported across the coastal enclave as Israel presses its genocidal war despite the “ceasefire” it has violated daily since October 10.

The bodies of those killed in the cities of Jabalia and Beit Lahiya were transported on Friday to al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.

In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, Israel struck a Palestinian home, with the military, claiming the attack was in response to its soldiers being shot near the so-called yellow line – the demarcation line where the Israeli army entrenched under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, creating its own buffer zone.

“Within half an hour, the house was evacuated. It was cleared out, and then it was bombed,” resident Saleh Abu Hatab told Al Jazeera, adding it was located “opposite a school sheltering displaced people”.

‘Traumatising Palestinians’

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Khan Younis, said the attack hit a multistorey building belonging to the Abu Hatab family. “No injuries or deaths were reported,” she said. Khoudary added that Israeli forces also attacked an area of empty land in Sheikh Ijilin in Gaza City.

“Despite the ceasefire … Israeli forces continue to attack different areas across the Gaza Strip, which is traumatising Palestinians,” she added. Elsewhere, in the central enclave, several Israeli tanks and engineering vehicles advanced east of Deir el-Balah, bulldozing and conducting clearing operations in the area.

The attacks come two days after Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians on Wednesday, one of the deadliest days since the Gaza US-brokered “ceasefire” began in early October. In that period, Israeli attacks have killed at least 574 people with 1,518 wounded, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Palestinian families united

Twenty-one Palestinians stranded in Egypt were reunited with their families on Thursday in southern Gaza via the Rafah crossing.

The journey back from the Egyptian city of El Arish took many hours amid Israeli restrictions and obstacles at the crossing, with returnees looking visibly exhausted.

The Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt – the only way in and out for almost all of Gaza’s more than two million residents – was kept shut by Israeli authorities for most of the war and only partially reopened on Monday.

With its limited reopening, Israel is allowing a mere trickle of people to travel, finally permitting Palestinians who had been stranded outside to return and enabling the transfer of patients desperately needing medical treatment abroad, a key condition of the US-brokered “ceasefire” deal intended to end the genocidal war on Gaza. Israel has dragged its feet on that condition even after its last remaining captive’s body in Gaza was returned.

To date, only a few dozen people have been allowed to enter and leave the war-devastated coastal enclave. Khoudary, citing the Red Crescent, said there were currently no plans for any movement at the crossing on Friday.

“There is a very big challenge that not only journalists are facing right now, but also the Palestinians themselves, where no one is informing Palestinians about when does this crossing open. When does it close? What is the process?” Khoudary said.

Khoudary added that the processing time at the crossing was “very long”, including for those returning, who were also being interrogated. “They are being interrogated, they’re being handcuffed, blindfolded, and they’re also being harassed by the Israeli forces,” she added.

“This is not what Palestinians were looking forward to. They want real freedom of movement,” she added.

Meanwhile, the pace of medical evacuations since the crossing’s partial reopening has been slower than the numbers promised, and far short of what was required to meet the needs of the approximately 20,000 patients in need of medical treatment in other countries.

While the agreement had spoken of 50 patients being evacuated each day, accompanied by two family members each, only about 30 had been transferred so far this week.

Gaza’s healthcare system has been devastated by Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, with 22 hospitals put out of service and 1,700 medical workers killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Armed militia members are serving as Israeli agents in Gaza: Investigation

Al Jazeera is set to release a new investigation on armed groups in Gaza accused of collaborating with the Israeli military against Palestinians, detailing their names, movements and training locations, as Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave continues unabated.

The investigation, a new episode of the programme What is Hidden is Greater, by Al Jazeera journalist Tamer Almisshal, will be broadcast at 9pm in Doha (18:00 GMT) on Friday. It includes audio and video material that the network says documents how individuals inside Gaza were recruited and operated.

The investigation reveals how the armed groups have been moving freely from northern to southern Gaza behind the so-called “yellow line” – the self-proclaimed demarcation line, effectively a buffer zone, where the Israeli army is entrenched under the first phase of the Gaza “ceasefire” that came into effect in October.

Israel has repeatedly violated the “ceasefire” on a near-daily basis, killing more than 525 Palestinians.Israeli military maps indicate the line extends 1.5km and 6.5km (0.9 to 4 miles) inside Gaza from its eastern boundary with Israel and covers roughly 58 percent of the enclave.

According to the investigation, these armed groups face multiple accusations of collaborating with the Israeli occupation, amid growing evidence that they move within areas prohibited to Palestinians under the ceasefire agreement, allegations that some of these groups have publicly denied.

Last June, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly admitted the country was using armed gangs in the devastated coastal enclave to help fight Hamas, the ruling entity in Gaza.

Netanyahu said the government had “activated” powerful local clans in the enclave on the advice of “security officials”.

A Palestinian woman returning to Gaza through the partially opened Rafah crossing this week told the Reuters news agency that she, along with other women, was stopped at a checkpoint manned by Israel-backed Palestinian gunmen who identified themselves as belonging to the Popular Forces, commonly known as the Abu Shabab militia.

The women’s family names were read out over a loudspeaker, and each was led by two men and a woman from Abu Shabab militia to a security point where Israeli forces were waiting. They were then subjected to full body searches, blindfolded and handcuffed, she said, and interrogated about the Hamas-led October 7 attack in southern Israel.

Elderly Palestinians determined to stay in Gaza despite terrible conditions

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has finally partially opened this week after two years of Israeli-mandated closure. The news offers relief for many – particularly those Palestinians in urgent need of treatment abroad.

But for many elderly Palestinians in Gaza, staying in the enclave is an act of survival, resistance, and historical memory. Rafah may be open, but they are not planning to go anywhere.

In Kefaya al-Assar’s mind, that decision to stay is an effort to correct what she perceives to have been a historical mistake made by her parents – fleeing their village of Julis, which was depopulated in the 1948 Nakba, and is now within Israel.

“We blamed [our parents] a lot for leaving our home there,” said the 73-year-old Kefaya.

Kefaya has faced displacement during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza five times. Originally from Jabalia in northern Gaza, she now shelters in a classroom at a school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat.

Widowed in early 2023 and without children, she said displacement revives the trauma she inherited from her parents. “History repeats itself now,” she said. “My parents lost all their money when they were forced to flee. We also used to have money, but now we are displaced and have lost everything.”

When Kefaya was a child, her family lived in tents in Gaza’s refugee camps, before they became more permanent structures in later decades. Now, she says that she is reliving that same fate.

“I don’t want to repeat history, I want to die in my own country,” she said. “Even here, being in Nuseirat, I feel like a stranger. I wish I could go back to Jabalia.”

Bezalel Zini, brother of Israel’s security chief, arrested in bust of alleged Gaza smuggling ring

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/05/middleeast/brother-shin-bet-chief-gaza-israel-smuggling-latam-intl

The brother of Israel’s security chief was arrested along with 14 others in a major police bust of an alleged smuggling ring accused of shipping crates of illegal goods into the Gaza Strip.

Bezalel Zini, a brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, was arrested as part of what Israeli authorities say was a “systematic and sophisticated” operation to smuggle illegal cigarettes into Gaza for profit.

According to an indictment, Bezalel Zini allegedly smuggled 14 crates of cigarettes into Gaza, for which he received about 365,000 shekels (approximately $117,000). Others arrested as part of the bust allegedly smuggled cellphones, car parts and other goods, prosecutors said in the indictment.

The indictment says the smuggling ring included some Israeli reserve soldiers, as well as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The alleged smuggling chain started with suppliers in the West Bank, passed through Israeli warehouses and ultimately reached Gaza through Israeli military convoys, sometimes during operational activity.

At other times, prosecutors said, the smuggling was done under the guise that it was for an operational need. The ring allegedly exploited a large-scale humanitarian effort used to ship aid and commercial goods into the shattered enclave.


Of course they were not arrested for exploitation, but for 'strenghtening Hamas'. Which doesn't even make sense...

Such activity, the Shin Bet internal security service warned, “poses a significant threat to the security of the State of Israel.” It argued that the smugglers’ actions directly strengthened Hamas and other armed groups in the enclave.

“They assist Hamas’s survivability and governance through profits from goods entering the Strip, contribute to Hamas’s empowerment and military build-up, and help refurbish its military production capabilities,” the statement said.

Hamas isn't getting any of the profits the smugglers make... 

Israel has already openly admitted that they're supporting militia groups in Gaza (other armed groups...), this reeks more of politically motivated infighting.

Authorities have stressed that no evidence connects the allegations against Bezalel Zini to his brother, David Zini, who directs the Shin Bet and is not accused of wrongdoing in the case. 

A pick of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, David Zini was one of the most controversial appointments in the agency’s history because of his lack of experience in intelligence and what former Shin Bet officials criticized as his “extreme worldview.” Zini had no experience within the Shin Bet, having been pulled directly from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The investigation into Bezalel Zini was handled by Israeli police instead of the Shin Bet because of the relationship between the two men. All of the cases against the other defendants involved a joint investigation by the Shin Bet and Israel Police.

Settler violence stokes peak West Bank displacement since October 2023: UN

Israeli settler violence and harassment in the occupied West Bank have displaced nearly 700 Palestinians in January, the highest number since Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza erupted in October 2023, according to the United Nations.

At least 694 Palestinians were forcefully driven from their homes last month, according to a statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Thursday.

The office also said in late January that settler violence has become a key driver of forced displacement in the occupied West Bank.

January’s displacement numbers were particularly high in part due to the displacement of an entire herding community in the Jordan Valley, Ras Ein al-Auja, whose 130 families left after months of sustained harassment.

“[The displacements] include 600 displaced from Ras Ein al-Auja community, marking the highest single-community displacement due to settler attacks and access restrictions over the past three years,” the statement said.

It also said that January 2026 marks the second-highest single‑month displacement since the October 2023 peak at 1,032.


On Friday, settlers attacked the Bedouin community of Shakara, south of Nablus, at dawn. They assaulted residents in their homes.

Settlers in the West Bank, which Israel has illegally occupied since 1967, use herding to establish a presence on agricultural land used by Palestinian communities and gradually deny them access to these areas, according to a 2025 report by Israeli NGO Peace Now.

The settlers rampage through Palestinian-owned land, destroying property and olive groves, injuring and killing civilians with impunity, often with the Israeli military’s backing.

Palestinians in the West Bank are also displaced when Israel’s military destroys structures and dwellings it says are built without permits or in prolonged Israeli raids in towns. In January, 182 other Palestinians were displaced due to home demolitions, according to OCHA.

Excluding occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to more than 500,000 Israelis living in settlements and outposts considered illegal under international law. About three million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank.

US blinks as Trump agrees to Iranian condition; Tehran seizes oil tankers

In a remarkable development, the US has agreed to send its representatives to Oman to hold talks with Iran. The Islamic Republic had demanded the change in venue from Turkey to Oman on Wednesday as one of the conditions. The development came on a day Iran seized two foreign oil tankers carrying one million litres of oil from the Strait of Hormuz. Rifat Jawaid explains why these two developments show Iran’s upper hand in the conflict with the US even in the face of impending American military strikes.

Last thing Trump can afford is another war with Iran. Too many vulnerable US troops stationed around the ME, easy targets, which Iran said would be fair game if the US attacks again. US soldiers dying will be the end of Trump.

What Barak-Epstein audio says about Israeli controlling demographics

Audio of the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak speaking to Jeffrey Epstein, the now deceased convicted sex offender, has shone a light on Israel’s efforts to alter demographics by diluting the Palestinian population it occupies and also revealed ingrained racism within Jewish circles.

Barak told Epstein that he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel needs one million Russian-speaking immigrants to absorb, as the authorities can be more “selective” and “can control the quality much more effectively” compared to the past.

The recording was released last week in a huge tranche of files by the United States Department of Justice.

The former Israeli leader, speaking in an undated meeting with Epstein, says that his country could “easily absorb another million” Russian-speaking immigrants, a clear reference to white Slavic peoples.

Before Israel’s creation in May 1948 and in its early years, the main source of immigration was Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews, as well as Sephardi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa. Barak, in the audio, seems to disparage Sephardi Jews, saying the country did what they could by taking Jews “from North Africa, from the Arabs, from whatever.”

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 started a massive immigration flow into Israel from various parts of the country. According to the official data, 996,059 immigrants from former Soviet republics arrived in Israel after its collapse up until 2009. Their politics have tended to be aligned with the right wing.


Barak also underscores the deep divisions between religious and secular Jews, a dynamic which continues to eat away at the country.

“I believe we have to break the monopoly of the Orthodox rabbinate on marriage and funerals and whatever, and on the definition of a Jew,” he said, referring to the strict religious rules in the religion. “[This would], in a sophisticated, certain manner, open the gates for massive conversion into Judaism. It’s a successful country, many will apply,” Barak said.

Barak said that the Israeli authorities “can control the quality” of the population “much more effectively than our ancestors, than the founding fathers of Israel could”. “It was kind of a salvation wave from North Africa, from the Arab [world] or whatever. They took whatever came; now, we can be selective,” he said, adding, “We can easily absorb another million. I used to tell Putin always, what we need is just one more million.”

Barak said that Russians would come to Israel first without preconditions, but added, “Under the social pressure of the need, especially of the second generation to adapt, it will happen.”

Some are welcome, others not

The government of Israel has actively promoted immigration into the country for decades. Americans and the French are especially welcome, and many end up moving to illegal settlements and espousing domination of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, in which they have no previous links.

As recently as November, the government revealed that new immigrants and returning residents arriving in 2026 will be offered a zero-percent income tax rate for their first two years in the country.

Under the reform, which was introduced as part of the 2026 state budget, returning residents who lived abroad for 10 or more years and new immigrants who move to Israel in 2026 will pay no income tax in 2026 and 2027; the rates will be gradually increased, according to the Israeli media.

But a large wave of immigration into the country, when tens of thousands from the Beta Israel community were transferred to Israel from Ethiopia in the 1980s and 1990s, has exposed deep-seated racism.

Beta Israel was widely seen as the main and oldest Jewish presence in Ethiopia. These Ethiopian Israelis have faced racism, exclusion and police violence against their communities. Many view themselves as second-class citizens.

However, they have rights that Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel do not have, nor have they been under brutal occupation as Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have been for decades.

Blow to Trump as Iran refuses to agree with demands; US asks citizens to leave

The talk between Iran and the US ended in Oman on Friday without any consensus on Donald Trump’s conditions over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran refused to agree with the US condition on not enriching uranium. This followed a warning by the US government to its citizens in Iran as it asked them to leave the Islamic Republic immediately. Rifat Jawaid analyses the implications of today’s rapidly changing developments.

Former IDF Soldier: We WILL Pay For Israel's Crimes Against Palestinians

Jen Perelman and Peter Hager react to a video put out by a former IDF soldier discussing the atrocities Israel has committed against Palestine, and how she knows everyone will pay for their crimes one day.

CAMPAIGN TO SHUTDOWN NAKBA EXHIBIT AT CANADIAN HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM FAILS

A historic event is to take place in Winnipeg, Manitoba in June 2026. For the first time, a national human rights museum will have a Nakba exhibit showcasing the ethnic cleansing and dispossession of Palestinians from their lands and homes. There is a campaign underway to have it cancelled by pro-Israeli groups in Canada. So far, they have failed to do so. Palestinian-Canadian, Rana Abdullah, was instrumental in bringing this exhibit to fruition.